Holder for paper cups



Sept. 27, 1949. w. E. AMBERG HOLDER FOR PAPER CUPS Filed Nov. 11, 1944 Patented Sept. 27, 1949 HOLDER FOR PAPER CUPS Walter E. Amberg, Beverly Shores, lnd., asslgnor,

by mesne assignments, to Lily-Tulip Cup Corporation, New York, N. Y., .a corporation of Delaware Application November 11, 1944, Serial No. 562,949

3 Claims. (Cl. 65-61) This invention relates to a holder for paper cups and has for its object the provision of an improved form of paper cup holder by which a conical paper cup can be picked up by the holder from an inverted stack. of cups and which will securely retain the cup within the holder until it is forceably removed therefrom.

An object of this invention is to provide a simple form of paper cup holderwhich can be easily and cheaply made and which will be certain in its operation, easy of use and easily cleaned and maintained.

In common use at the present time at soda fountains for the reception of. liquids and ice cream preparations are conical paper cups, some of them with obliquely inclined walls to be used for the serving of ice cream sundaes and others with more steeply formed walls for the reception of liquids such as orange juice, water, milk, coffee,

etc.

While the conical form of paper cup lends itself more readily to fabrication and storage and is the more economical in use because of the small amount of paper employed in its manufacture, it must be used with a holder of some kind because of the conical formation of the cup.

. A large number of forms of cup holders have been provided for the retention of the conical paper cup. A problem has arisen in the provision of a conical paper cup holder which will provide means for retention of the cup within the holder with certainty'and yet will not involve numerous independent manipulations to secure the cup within the holder.

This invention relates to an improved form of paper cup holder which is provided with simple resilient grips which are operated merely by insertion of the cup and which will positively retain the cup within the holder throughout the time that the cup is being filled and the contents are being consumed therefrom.

The salient feature of this invention is the provision of resilient leaves secured within a conical cup holder which permit the insertion of a conical cup betweenthem and which will thereby resiliently grip the cup.

Other objects, advantages and capabilities of the invention will appear from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation of a cup holder I of this invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of the paper 2 cup holder showing the resilient leaves at the base of the cup holder;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view of the resilient leaves gripping the tip of a conical paper cup of which a sectional fragment is also shown;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view of the leaves gripping the tip of a conical paper cup in a slightly different way from that shown in Fig. 3, a fragment of the cup also being shown in section;

Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation of a slightly modifled form of the cup holder of this invention designed for the same type of cup as that for which the cup holder shown in Fig. 1 is designed;

Fig. 6 is a sectional elevation of the third modifled form of cup holder which is designed for use with conical cups with steep side walls;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary section of the throat of a cup holder incorporating a modified form of this invention.

Referring to drawings, reference numeral it] indicates the base or pedestal of a cup holder to which is attached the receptacle portion i2. The cup-receiving receptacle portion of the cup holder is in the form of an inverted cone frustum which may be joined to the base l0 at approximately the plane at which the cone is truncated, or may be made integral with the base.

This cup holder may be formed of any suitable material such as metal, plastic material, wood, glass, papier-mach, ceramic materials or any other materials which may be fashioned into the form shown.

To the side walls of the cup holder receptacle l2 are attached projections in the form of resilient leaves l4 which are preferably made of metal, such as spring steel, or may suitably be made of other sheet materials that have resilient properties and will retain their form and resilience after repeated use. r

The spring leaves l4 may be secured to the walls of the receptacle I2 by means of the rivets [6 or any other suitable means for securing the leaves in fixed position with respect to the side walls of the receptacle and the throat thereof.

The spring leaves I4 extend substantially across the throat I 8 of the cup holder receptacle but preferably do not meet or overlap in the preferred embodiment of the invention. While the free edges 20 of the spring leaves M are shown cut substantially parallel and normal to the longitudinal axis of the spring leaves, the shape thereof may be altered variously without avoiding the principle of this invention.

Inthe modified form of the invention shown scribed.

in Fig. 5, the base 30 and the receptacle portion 32 of the cup holder are shown stamped from a blank of metal with the resilient leaves 3 stamped into substantially the shape and form of those of the spring leaves I 4 shown in Fi s. 1 and 2 but stamped from the integral blank from which the entire cup holder is formed. This modified form of the invention operates in exactly the same manner as the operation of the form of cup holder shown in Fig. 1 hereinafter to be described.

In the modified form of the invention shown in Fig. 6, the pedestal 40 and the receptacle 42, as well as the resilient spring leaves 44, are formed from the same materials and in the same manner as that described for the embodiment shown in Fig. 1. The only difference between the structure shown in Fig. 6 and that shown in Fig. 1 lies in the proportions of the cup receptacle'which are altered to correspond to the altered proportions of conical cups in which the side walls are more steeply formed than those for which a holder of the type shown in Fig. 1 is designed.

As shown in Fig. 7, this invention may also be incorporated into a paper cup holder in which only one resilient leaf is employed. In that structure, a rigid abutment 55 is provided opposite to the resilient leaf 54 for cooperation therewith in the manner hereinafter to be de- Method of operation The conical cups for which the cup holder of this invention is designed are normally supplied in stacks containing a largenumbe'r of the cups. These stacks are usually" inverted where the cups are maintained for use soas to eliminate the possible intrusion of dirt and'soiling'of the interior of the paper cups. The conical form'of cup makes it impossible to store these cups without some provision for support unless the cups are stacked in invertedstacks in the conventional manner. Y 1

The cup holder of this invention is used to remove a single cup from an inverted stack merely by pressing the inverted cup holder upon the stack of inverted cups. When this is done the tip or apexial end of the conical cup H (shown in fragmentary section in Figs. 3 and 4) enters the throat and will force its way between the yielding resilient leaves 14. When the pressure upon the cup holder is relaxed, the resilient leaves It will attempt to resume the position shown in Fig. 1 and will grip the tip I 3 of the conical paper cup securely between the edges 20 of the resilient leaves. Occasionally one resilient leaf will close more quickly than the other, in which event the tip of the conical paper cup II will assume the configuration shown in Fig. 4.

With the tip of the cup gripped between the edges 20 of the resilient leaves M, the cup may be readily lifted from the inverted stack and the cup holder with the paper cup retained therein inverted into its upright position for use.

When the contents of the cup have been removed and the cup is to be removed from the cup holder the base of the cup holder may be held with one hand while a paper cup is plucked from the holder, the resilient leaves yielding sufficiently to permit the tip l3 to be withdrawn therefrom.

With the throat of the cup holder provided with the modified form of this invention, shown in fragmentary section in Fig. 7, only one resllient leaf 54 is provided. Cooperating with. it is the rigid abutment 55 which may be formed to provide a blunted edge 60 to oppose the edge of the resilient leaf 54. When the cup holder of this form is used only the resilient leaf 54 is deformed and the tip of the conical cup is forced between th rigid edge 60 and the edge 20 of the yielding blade 54. The method of operation is substantially the same as that for the other forms of this invention except that only one blade is provided with the resiliency which will permit it to yield when the inverted cup holder is pressed upon an inverted stack of cups.

When the resilient leaves are mounted while in the receptacle of the cup holder, as shown in Fig. 6, the resilient leaves will pinch the lower portion of the conical cup at some point above the tip of the cup and by the slight pressure of the resilient leaves tend to deform the cup. The leaves will tend to deform the cup in such a way that the section at the point of contact with the resilient leaves is irregularly oval in shape. Because of the strong tendency of the paper cup to retain its conical form, the lower portion of the cup which has passed the spring leaves will resume a form which is circular in section and thus will leave pronounced dents in the walls of the cup where the springs impinge upon the cup. Both because of this denting of the cup walls where the springs impinge ,and because of the deformation of the cup, when the cup holder is pressed upon a stack of inverted cups the outer cup, which is in contact with the springs, is freed over a large part of its inner surface from contact with the adjacent cups and the frictional engagement of the outer cup with those remaining in the stack is reduced, thus facilitating the removal of the outer cup from the stack and insuring a substantial grip upon the cup by the resilient leaves.

Although the invention has been disclosed in connection with the specific details Of a preferred embodiment thereof, it is to be understood that such details are not intended to be limitative of the invention except insofar as set forth in the accompanying claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A substantially hollow pickup holder for preformed conical paper cups comprising a base, a substantially conical cup receptacle joining the base, the juncture forming a throat between the base and cup receptacle, said cup receptacle receiving and supporting a preformed conical paper cup with the apexial end of the paper cup extending into said throat, and resiliently movable pickup and retaining means located within said throat and comprising a plurality of opposed projections extending inwardly toward the center of said throat to provide opposed resiliently relatively movable substantially horizontal edges for engaging and indenting the conical paper cup therebetween adjacent the apexial end thereof for automatically and resiliently. gripping the con-- tlvely movable substantially horizontal edges for engaging and indenting the conical paper cup therebetween adjacent the apexial end thereof for automatically and resiliently gripping the conical paper cup.

3. A substantially hollow pickup holder for preformed conical paper cups comprising a base, a substantially conical cup receptacle joining the base, the juncture forming a throat between the base and cup receptacle, said cup receptacle receiving and supporting a preformed conical paper cup with the apexial end of the paper cup extending into said throat, and resiliently movable pickup and retaining means located within said throat and comprising a pair of opposed projections extending inwardly toward the center of said throat, one of said projections being rigid and the other resiliently movable, to provide opposed resiliently relatively movable substantially horizontal edges for engaging and indenting the conical paper cup therebetween adjacent the apexial end thereof for automatically and resiliently gripping the conical paper cup.

WALTER E. AMBERG.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

